Islanders lose Jordan Eberle in way too early mock expansion draft 1.0

The final decision

Judging by the list of New York Islanders players left unprotected, this one will sting for President of Hockey Operations (and also GM) Lou Lamoriello.

To get it out of the way, Andrew Ladd and Johnny Boychuk aren’t in consideration for Seattle. The former will be 35-years-old, and the latter 37 at draft time. Additionally, Ladd has two years at $5.5M per year remaining on his contract, and Boychuck is due to $6M for the 2021-22 season.

Seattle is essentially choosing between Eberle, Hickey, Dal Colle, Bellows, and Varlamov. Cross off Varly because there are going to be younger, cheaper, and better goalies available. As much as I thought one of the young forwards would be lost, they weren’t. In the end, Seattle had enough money in the budget to go in a different direction.

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NYI loses Eberle

Vegas set such a high bar with their first season success that expectations are unrealistically high for Francis. He has to put a very competitive team on the ice. To be honest, the Islanders were close to the last team I picked from because I tried to stay between $67.5M and $79.5M, and I wanted a few guys who could score. Sure enough, there was room for both Eberle and Brayden Point.

Our next edition will come after the Stanley Cup is awarded.